Verification of identity and continued presence of computer users

摘要

The identity and continued presence of an individual at a computer workstation are verified prior to and during execution of an application on the computer workstation. A first biometric sample of an individual proximate to the workstation is gathered at a first time. A first identity is established corresponding to the first biometric sample using a first biometric comparison, wherein the first biometric comparison consumes a first processing load. The application is executed in conjunction with the first identity. A second biometric sample of an individual proximate to the workstation is gathered at a second time following the first time by a delay. A second identity is established corresponding to the second biometric sample using a second biometric comparison, wherein the second biometric comparison consumes a second processing load which is less than the first processing load. The application conditionally continues to execute in conjunction with the first identity if the second identity matches. In another embodiment, the difference between the first and second biometric comparisons is that the first requires a dedicated, cooperative action while the second does not.